Typical wages in the country were: field-workers 2-3d. a day,
ploughmen 1s. a week with board, shepherd 6d. a week and board,
his boy 2 1/2 d., hedgers 6d. a day, threshers 3-7d. depending on
the grain, thatching for five days 2d., master mason or carpenter
or joiner 4d. a day and food or 8d. without food, a smith 2d. a
day with food, a bricklayer 2 1/2 d. a day with food, a shoemaker
2d. a day with food. These people lived primarily on food from
their own ground.
There was typical work for each month of the year in the country:
January - ditching and hedging after the frost broke, February -
catch moles in the meadows, March - protect the sheep from
prowling dogs, April - put up hop poles, sell bark to the tanner
before the timber is felled, fell elm and ash for carts and
ploughs, fell hazel for forks, fell sallow for rakes, fell horn
for flails, May - weed and hire children to pick up stones from
the fallow land, June - wash and shear the sheep, July - hay
harvest, August - wheat harvest, September and October - gather
the fruit, sell the wool from the summer shearing, stack logs for
winter, buy salt fish for Lent in the town and lay it up to dry,
November - have the chimneys swept before winter, thresh grain in
the barn, December - grind tools, repair yokes, forks, and farm
implements, cover strawberry and flower beds with straw to protect
them from the cold, split kindling wood with beetle and wedge, tan
their leather, make leather jugs, make baskets for catching fish,
and carve wood spoons, plates, and bowls.
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